Medicare Documentation Requirement Lookup Service

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesSpecial Open Door Forum:Medicare Documentation Requirement Lookup ServiceTuesday, October 23, 20182:00-3:00 pm Eastern TimeConference Call OnlyThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Center for Program Integrity will host a series of Special Open Door Forum (SODF) calls to educate the public about a new initiative underway to develop a Medicare Fee for Service (FFS) Documentation Requirement Lookup Service prototype. Also, to allow physicians, suppliers, IT and Electronic Health Record (EHR) Developers and Vendors, and/or all other interested parties to provide feedback to CMS and inform how interested parties can get involved or track the progress of this initiative.

CMS is collaborating with ongoing industry efforts to streamline workflow access to coverage requirements, starting with developing a prototype Medicare FFS Documentation Requirement Lookup Service and is participating in two workgroups to promote development of standards that will support the Lookup Service. One workgroup is a private sector initiative hosted by Health Level Seven (HL7), the Da Vinci project. The second workgroup is The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Payer + Provider (P2) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) Taskforce.By working with HL7, ONC, other payers, providers, and EHR vendors, CMS is helping define the requirements and architect the standards-based solutions. In parallel, CMS is preparing to support pilots testing the information exchanges for Medicare FFS programs and possibly coordinate pilots with volunteer participants to verify and test the new FHIR based solutions.

The goals of the Documentation Requirement Lookup Service prototype are to reduce provider burden, reduce improper payments and appeals, and improve "provider to payer" information exchange. The prototype will be made accessible to pilot participants and will allow providers to be able to discover the following at the time of service and within their EHR or practice management system:

If Medicare FFS requires prior authorization for a given item or service; and

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